Building a "little brick" for a friend. We're using some existing parts and some new parts, but this is basically the list:
https://pcpartpicker.com/user/p4ck3tl055/saved/4nHq
So, the main question I have is cooling. We're not planning on overclocking initially, although, knowing my friend, we will be going there at some in the future. With a mini-itx box being so hard to work with anyway, I really only want to be inside this case once. If I replace the stock fan on the Seidon with a Corsair AF120 Quiet Edition (As I have it spec'ed), will that be enough to cool the i5 if it were overclocked to say 4.4GHz? Or, should I just go ahead and either leave the stock fan or swap up to the AF120 Performance Edition instead?
Since I'm not used to a brick like this, I'm also concerned about the noise it will make when placed on a desk next to the monitor. With the Radiator fan, the PSU fan and the GPU fans, during mild gaming, anyone want to hazard a guess as to the noise it will make? Will it be loud?
As an alternative, we're also looking at a different motherboard - the Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI. Anyone wanna chime in on that board - good or bad?
-- edited for typos and grammar
The Elite 130 is a great budget case, but with overclocks that high and the radiator not expelling the air directly out of the case, you may have a little bit of heat issues.
Radiators need static pressure fans. Get the SP120 Performance if you want better cooling. The stock fan is loud, but the SP120 Performance will also be loud, especially with high overclocks.
I have not had any experience with that motherboard. I do like Gigabyte motherboards, though. Remember to get the Z77 chipset as the H77 chipset will not allow you to properly overclock.
The loudest thing in your system will probably be your AIO or GPU. I wouldn't expect a silent case. It shouldn't sound like a vacuum cleaner, though.
So I bought that tiny Ncase M1 a while back, and because it looked so badass on [H]ard|Forum I went with a Swiftech H220 (wich you can easily modify by taking off the tubes),took the entire cooler off a HD 7970, slapped a full waterblock on it and inserted it in the H220 so that it forms a small custom loop now.
Just today I overclocked the 7970 as far as I could and ran Folding@Home on it to see what my build would do under extreme load. Yes you can hear the fans quite a bit, but like Some Tech Noob said if I did that with n aftermarket cooler it would sound like a vacuum cleaner. (It has a Haswell in it but that one is not overclocked, but Haswell's get quite hot though)
I know this is not the cheaper option, but If getting your rig quiet is worth the money for you, you should consider a modification like this. No idea if it will fit in the Corsair though.
(Just saw that those Ncase guys are going to sell some more M1's, but they're not cheap)